


Trapped

by Americaswritings



Series: Tim & Lucy moments [2]
Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: Chenford moments, F/M, Flashbacks of her trauma, Fluff In The End, Lots of Angst, Panic Attack, her last day as his rookie, small space, soft tim bradford, tucy moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 16:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28691922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Americaswritings/pseuds/Americaswritings
Summary: It's Lucy's last day as Tim's rookie. But instead of spending it on the streets of LA fighting crime, they are trapped in an elevator together. This brings some unwanted memories back to Lucy...
Relationships: Tim Bradford & Lucy Chen, Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen
Series: Tim & Lucy moments [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103099
Comments: 6
Kudos: 130





	Trapped

**Author's Note:**

> Heyy,
> 
> Another little Chenford/Tucy oneshot from me. :)  
> I got the idea before falling asleep last night and knew I had to write it down.  
> As you can see, I live for angst & Tim being soft for Lucy <3
> 
> This can be read as a second chapter to "Safe place", because it really proves what Lucy told Tim at the end, but it can also be read on its own!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“I can’t believe they called the police to sort out their marriage problems”, Lucy stated, falling into step next to her TO.  
“It’s not uncommon that people call the police to solve an argument they have with a family member or friend", Tim told her, not particular surprised about the incident.

“It’s not our job though. There are marriage and family counsellors for that”, she sighed, following him into the elevator.  
“Aren’t you usually the one defending people’s behaviour by psychoanalysing them?”, he wondered and she rolled her eyes.  
“I’m not psychoanalysing them, I am just showing empathy. You should try it, it looks good on you.” 

She was wearing a teasing smile and he huffed, but with a grin on his face.  
“Just one more day as my rookie and you’re acting up. I have been too easy on you.” 

“Hey, I just had to do 30 burpees this morning”, she reminded him and he chuckled.  
“Yeah, because you failed my test. You deserved it”, he argued, amused when he thought back to the look she had given him after finishing the set.  
“Whatever”, Lucy brushed it off, but she smiled to herself. 

Suddenly the elevator came to an abrupt halt.  
“Wait, weren’t we on the eleventh floor? We can’t possibly be all the way down yet”, Lucy wondered, walking towards the doors in case they would open.  
She heard Tim groan behind her and she turned towards him, needing to hear from him what she was suspecting herself. 

“We’re stuck”, he announced and the words made her blood freez. Stuck. She was stuck. Again.

“That damn elevator”, he sighed, “I knew we should have taken the stairs!”  
But Lucy didn’t pay much attention to him anymore. She felt her heart beating fast in her chest, too fast and her vision was closing in. 

“No, no, no, we can’t be stuck”, she muttered, starting to walk around the elevator to look for something she could use as an escape.  
“Well, we are and instead of being on the street on your last day, we will waste the time in this stupid cage!”  
Tim seemed frustrated, but mostly over the fact that they couldn’t get back onto the street. 

It was her last day as his rookie and he didn’t feel ready to let her go just yet. She was a good cop and he was sure she would make an excellent one in no time, but there was still so much he had to teach her. He couldn’t imagine not having her by his side, making sure she was safe and watching over her.

“But don’t think for one second that I won’t use this as an opportunity to drill you with questions about police work”, he declared instead, hoping that Lucy wouldn’t see through his intention. He didn’t need her pointing out that he had grown a little too attached to her, for her to be just his rookie. 

Tim walked over to the emergency button, pressing it and starting to talk to someone once a connection had been established.  
Lucy could hear his voice, but it seemed muffled, even though he was only standing a few steps away from her.  
The word cage was ringing in her head and she felt her hands start to sweat.  
They were stuck in a cage. 

It made her think back to what she had said to Tim just a few days ago: “If I can’t handle talking to Rosalind while she’s in a cage, I shouldn’t be a cop.”  
Now they were the ones being caged up. The universe really seemed to hate her.

“An hour?!”, she heard Tim repeating the engineer’s words in disbelief and her breath sped up even more.  
She heard him argue and groan, but eventually he gave in and stepped back from the intercom. 

“A technician will be here in an hour”, he stated flatly and she gasped for air.  
“I won’t spend the next hour trapped inside this box”, she declared, turning back to her investigation of finding something, anything really, that she could make use of to get out of here.

“Seems like you don’t have much of a choice”, Tim retorted, watching her study the walls of the elevator with raised brows.  
“Come on, relax, you will be back on the streets in no time”, he tried to assure her, but she shook her head. 

“No, you don’t understand”, she said, only now turning back towards him so he could see how serious she was.  
“I need to get out of here”, she insisted and he realized there was panic in her eyes. “I need to get out of here”, she repeated, but this time her voice was only above a whisper.

She continued her search more desperate now and when she concluded that there was no hidden opening, she started to bang against the elevator’s walls. 

Tim had been confused about her intense reaction towards the situation at first; he hadn’t thought that that she was so determined to spend her last day as a rookie on the streets.  
But when he had seen the look on her face and heard the fear in her voice, he knew that it wasn’t about her training at all. 

She was terrified, because it reminded her of the time she had been captured and trapped in the barrel, waiting for death to come to her.  
His heart squeezed painfully at that realization. It hurt him to see her like that, knowing that there was nothing he could do to get them out of here now. 

“Hey Chen, look at me”, he tried to get her attention, putting as much authority in his voice as he could muster, but she didn’t seem to register his words at all.  
Instead she began punching the walls of the elevator, desperate to escape. 

“Lucy!”

She still didn’t show any reaction to his words so he quickly strode towards her, pulling her away from the walls before she could hurt herself.  
His arms were wrapped around her torso and he pressed her into his chest. 

She was fighting him at first, blinded by her fear. Flashes of the time she was trapped in the barrel kept coming back to her.

“Hey, it’s okay! Relax, boot. You’re safe!” 

His voice was gentle and soothing and he felt her going limp in his arms. If it was due to his voice pulling her out of her own thougths or her strength leaving her body, he didn't know.  
Tears were streaming down her face and he felt his own eyes fill with tears. 

After everything she had been through, he thought to himself, why would this have to happen to her, now, on her last day of training?  
The day that should give her the confidence to know she could handle herself, not tear down everything she had been working on so hard to forget.

“How about we sit down?”, he suggested and he could feel her nod slightly against his chest.  
He slowly let go of her and they sat down next to each other, leaning against one of the walls for support.

He thought back to the last time they had spend sitting next to each other.  
They had sat back to back, only the wooden door seperating them and her from the virus he had caught. 

While he had considered how he could make his death the least painful, she had been reassuring him that everything would be fine.  
She had tried to give him the hope he had lost long ago.  
Had he ever thanked her for it? He couldn't remember, but at least he could try to do the same for her now.

“This is not like the barrel”, he began, “I can move my legs freely, see.”  
He let his legs slide out to every side without making contact with a wall, showing her that there was enough space for them to move. 

She was watching in concentration, her cheeks still flowing with tears and her bottom lip trembling.  
It broke his heart into a million little pieces to see her like that. 

“You can do it too, try it out”, he encouraged her, knowing that she had to experience it on her own to fully grasp it.  
Hesitantly Lucy began to move her legs, her eyes fixed on them when she did it. 

When she had extended them into every direction, she looked up at him again and he nodded in approval.  
“See, there is enough space here. I bet you could even do your yoga exercises in here”, he tried to cheer her up and it worked, a little chuckle escaped her lips.  
His heart warmed at that. 

But Lucy was still having trouble breathing. Her breathing was too fast and the air didn't seem to reach her lungs.  
"There is enough air in here", he assured her, "but you have to try to slow down your breathing, okay? Come on, you can breathe with me. In and out, in and out..."

Her gaze was fixed at his chest when she tried to copy his breathing. 

It took some time for her to find a steady rhythm again, but she seemed much more present once it had slowed down.  
Yet her face was still twisted in fear. 

“But I don’t- “, she began, trying to find her breath. 

He patiently waited for her to continue.  
“I am not safe here”, she whispered, another tear escaping her eye. 

He thought about it for a second, knowing that he had to consider his words wisely in order to not ay something that could potentially trigger her.

Taking a deep inhale, Tim reached for her hand. He was surprised how well it fitted into his bigger one.  
Her skin was warm and soft against his and he wondered why he had never taken her hand before.

Because she’s still your rookie, a voice in the back of his head argued, but he shut it out for now.  
She needed him to be here for her right now, even if that meant being vulnerable himself.

Lucy looked up at him in surprise but didn’t pull away.  
His hand holding hers felt new and in some way grounding. 

He had started to draw little patterns on her skin with his thumb and she tried to focus on the feeling of it instead of the walls around her that still seemed to be closing in on her. 

Tim waited for her to focus back on him and once her gaze had found his he gulped, preparing himself for the words that were about to leave his lips.

“You’re safe with me.”

Lucy’s eyes widened in surprise, but she didn’t break eye contact.  
She was trying to read him, to see through what he had just said to her. He knew that and he let her. 

Tomorrow everything would be different between them, he was certain of that, but different didn’t have to be bad.  
Maybe it was finally time to stop fighting whatever was between them.

He saw that his words had deeply affected Lucy and he was relieved to see that she had stopped crying.  
Her body wasn’t as tensed anymore and it seemed like a burden had been taken off her shoulders. 

But there was a slight furrow of her brows that gave away that something was still bothering her.

“It’s my last day as your rookie”, she said, her voice a little shaky. “You won’t be with me after that.” 

It hurt him to hear her say it out loud, because these thoughts had tormented him for the last days as well. Hearing her say them made it even more real. 

“Yeah”, he affirmed, “But just because I won’t be your TO anymore, doesn’t mean I won’t be there for you. I am not out of the world”, he added with a smile and she smiled a little herself. 

“And as your TO…and a friend”, he referred to what she had said to him a couple of days ago in the shop and she smiled when he finally acknowledged what he had always denied,  
“I know that you can handle yourself. You proved that on many occasions.”

Lucy’s smile grew and he saw her cheeks turn a little red, feeling a little embarrassed by his compliment. He rarely praised her, but when he did, it meant even more. 

“You don’t need me there with you”, he finished and Lucy saw both pride and sadness in his eyes. 

She squeezed his hand that was still holding hers. 

“What if I want you there?”, she asked uncertain. 

“I am not out of the world, remember? I’ll be around”, he reassured her, trying to hide how touched he felt by her words. 

“I’ll come back to that”, Lucy promised, smiling shyly at him. 

“I hope you will.”


End file.
